


Laughing 'til our ribs get tough but that will never be enough

by kalika_999



Series: Jack and Brock's misadventures [63]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Getting Together, Growing Up, HYDRA Husbands, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 20:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalika_999/pseuds/kalika_999
Summary: Those feelings aren't so strong.





	Laughing 'til our ribs get tough but that will never be enough

**Author's Note:**

> I heard Ribs by Lorde yesterday for the first time and my brain wandered.

Brock and Jack have known each other since they were kids in elementary. They basically grew up together, but they weren’t really friends. They just knew of each other and through high school were in a lot of the same sports related social circles. Jack was popular as an all-round athlete, and Brock was the golden boy of their football team. 

Oddly enough though, they didn’t really mix. Jack would pretend he didn’t exist a lot of the time and when they did interact it was a lot of generic small talk that dwindled into nothing as quickly as it started; Brock would only make it worse by wearing the whole torturous ordeal across his face and barely say anything back. (Hey if the guy wouldn’t make time for him, he sure as hell wouldn’t in return).

It was never an issue anyone asked about, it was just a thing they did and never got past it.  Brock had tried, a few times, to really talk to Jack but he’d barely get a scoff or two seconds of his attention before Brock just gave up and signed him off for his own sanity. 

Maybe if during their shared classes Jack would sometimes get lost at the way Brock would rub the back of his neck or chew at the end of his pen while he was staring out the window, that was no ones business but his.  If Brock sometimes happened to steal glimpses of Jack in the locker room with only a towel around his waist while he was talking to his teammates and thought about them alone together in the showers, that was a secret he’d never spill to another soul.

When it was all said and done, they graduated and simply went their own separate ways without a second thought.

*****

If anyone in the past had asked if Brock ever thought of becoming an actor he would have laughed in their face. 

He imagined a scholarship to play football forever and maybe a coaching gig once he retired but when he busted his knee out, the first part of that plan went up in smoke.  Somehow along the way he ended up as an extra in a local action movie and he began to set himself out to find roles that fit his tough guy looks and skills for taking a real convincing beating. 

It quickly paid off, he wasn’t a superstar by all means but he carved himself a little niche and was a go to guy for many people in the field.  He wasn’t anything amazing when given tons of lines but he made it work to the best of his ability and it never deterred people from hiring him in.  They all liked what he was selling and Brock was willing to ride that until it wasn’t profitable anymore. It gave him a plushy comfortable life and it’s enough. 

When Bucky calls him up asking if he’s going to attend their high school reunion, he surprises himself when he says that he will.  He’d gotten over the blow of not playing professionally and he loves what he does now, he sees no reason not to especially when Bucky tells him he has to attend.

*****

Of anyone Jack expects to see showing up at their reunion, Brock Rumlow is definitely not one of them.  By the faces of a few people, he’s not the only one.

Any complicated feelings he’s managed to tuck away for this evening all comes out tenfold the moment he lays eyes on him and he can’t help himself. 

At first he thinks it’s jealousy that triggers him, he’s a decent action star while all Jack has is his bakery.  It’s beloved by many in the community and he’s been featured in a few magazine articles and internet blogs. He loves everything about it and would never trade places with anyone but Brock’s extremely famous.  Made it out of their small little safe haven of a town and grabbed success by the throat; while it’s not through football, it’s amazing he still did it. It makes Jack feel guilty about being how he was in high school, and that attraction he’s been trying to bury away simmers back up to the surface once again like it’s never gone and really it never can when he sees Brock on the television or in a movie. 

It took him a long time to shift from kind of knowing the man in real life to placing him in the category of celebrity crushes considering he was never going to see him again.  Now that Brock’s walked into their reunion wearing a beautiful suit that was tailor made to accentuate his muscular build, a few of his top buttons undone to show off a wonderfully warm tanned glow of skin and that hairstyle that Jack’s always wanted to ruin by running his fingers through it, Jack can’t help inching towards him when Brock’s alone by the snack table. 

Brock picks up on him almost right away and before Jack can even say a word, he smiles.  It’s not the excited, happy expression Jack sees in interviews when Brock’s having a great time, or when he met old friends just a few minutes ago, this one is something more professional, one that he gives to the paps. 

Jack supposes it’s better than a frown and he smiles back. “Nice to see you here.” 

Brock’s lips twitch like he wants to say something but instead he doesn’t and nods as he looks out towards the crowd of people mingling.  It’s probably the most time they’ve ever shared together comfortably.

*****

They keep talking all throughout the evening, it’s exciting and actually fun.  What they should have done is continued to ignore each other but with shared friends and circles coming around them constantly, it’s hard to consider doing that especially when Brock wasn’t a teenager anymore and if Jack wanted to ignore him, he wouldn’t feel offended about it anymore. 

It doesn’t help that Jack’s grown up too and there’s a scar along jaw that’s aged and he wants to ask about it, though he doesn’t, not yet anyway.  He’s a little taller and less skinny, still lean but there’s enough definition of muscle that makes Brock want to investigate it without Jack having his clothes on to get in his way.  It’s not hard to hide what he’s thinking because by the looks Jack is giving him while they talk, Brock’s become fluent in knowing that when people stare at him like he is now, they’re out for only one thing and that one thing only.

*****

Neither of them are really that surprised that by the end of the night they end up back in Brock’s hotel room and years of pent up feelings and hormones are unleashed.  When they’re exhausted and in need of a breather, Jack turns on the nightstand lamp to look for his cigarettes. He steals a glance over at Brock, stretched out onto his back with no qualms about his body being on full display.  He’s confident and gorgeous, sweat glistening off his skin and mottled bruises blooming across his body. Jack wants to say so many things but when Brock rolls over to his side and stares at him with those coppery colored eyes, he’s distracted again and he loses his place.

“Are ya gonna stay over, or headin’ out?” Brock asks, his tone shifting to something more business-like once more like when they first began to speak that night.

Jack finds that he hates it, loves it better when Brock was panting and begging out his name, curses spilling off his lips when things were _so good_ and he takes a considerate drag of his smoke before blowing it off into the air and rolling himself onto his side to face opposite Brock before he holds the smoke out for him to have.

“I’ll stay.” He replies simply and then he waits for the cigarette to finish before they’re kissing again and end up having sex once more.  He stays the whole night and in the morning they fuck one more time before they decide to get out of bed. Jack follows him to breakfast and Brock doesn't even seem to bat an eye over it.

*****

Brock’s puzzled completely by Jack.  He doesn’t just fuck him and take off, he sleeps over, has a look of determination he’s confused about.  He’d assumed Jack was only there to get that one thing because Brock was doing decent and it was a story he could share around later, it was generally what men he’d slept around with did and that was fine with him as long as he got what he wanted out of it. 

He didn’t really want them sticking around in the morning anyway but Jack follows him to breakfast and makes jokes about his hair looking so messy while they hook their ankles together under the table and share stories about their lives.

Brock had always known, in some degree, Jack was nice under all that animosity.  It was why he’d try to keep talking to him until ultimately he gave up. It’s nice when he finally gets to see it, mixed in with his flirting and good looks and sure he’s had people hit on him at parties and get togethers but they don’t hold a candle to Jack doing it.  There’s a charm to it, and a long standing yearning he had forever tried to stop thinking about but sat dormant for so many years.

He’s unsure of what to do with all of it now that it’s unpacked.  Jack’s been cold and now he’s hot and if Jack’s sweet words between each thrust were anything to go by, he’s unsure of how to proceed with all of it.

*****

It’s after they eat that Jack finally gathers up his courage enough to say his peace.  Brock’s different here, like when they were in bed and when he’d opened up the later the night had gotten.  His smile shifts to something more comfortable, more earnest and freeing and Jack adores it a touch too much.  He lays all his cards on the table because he has to, extending his arm out across the table and resting his hand close to Brock’s coffee cup so he gets all of his attention.

“I’m sorry,” He starts, unsure of exactly how to word it all.  “I never meant to just keep ignoring you all those times you tried talking to me, or making it seem like I didn’t want to be around you.  I was..” He glances away in thought until he feels the light touch of Brock’s fingers against the top of his knuckles. He chuckles softly, like he’s a little relieved, staring at Jack’s hand with this kind of fondness to it.

“Bein’ a dick.” He completes for him.  “I took it all personally.”

Jack watches Brock’s fingertips barely skim along his skin, it gives him goosebumps and a shiver down his back.  “It felt so scary to talk to you, my feelings were..complicated, for a teenager.” He looks up to see Brock avoiding looking at him, he’s sure his cheeks are pinking a little under that sun-kissed skin.  “I really did want to talk to you but, I was scared of having a crush on you, how to deal with it. I shut down instead.”

“And now?” Brock asks, those honey colored eyes peeking up at him, careful but curious.

Jack frowns a little, _now_ is more complicated. “It’s not a crush anymore..” He turns his hand upwards to take those fingers before Brock has a chance to take them away or misunderstand him. “It’s a lot more than that now.”

When the tips of Brock’s ears turn a dusty kind of red and he reaches up to touch one with his free hand in absent wonder, Jack knows no one else has done that to him and it makes him feel like he’s on top of the world for it.

*****

There’s still a whole world between them, stuff they need to figure and work out.  To discover from their days in school and as kids, then to now but Brock has another movie to film.  It’s out in Asia and Jack sends him snaps of things he bakes while he receives memes in return.

They talk through a lot of texts and send each other an abundance of pictures- personal and private.  Any shots stolen by paparazzi of Brock while out and about in the city always have him buried in his phone, distracted by that more than the beauty he’s surrounded by and it makes Jack feel warm inside. 

People like to ask him what it’s like to date a movie star and he’s always lost in what to really say because he’s not thinking of anything like that with Brock, instead he just smiles and shrugs, goes on with his day like it’s any other.

They still fight, they’re two different people that barely knew each other in the past, but this time around they know how to fix it and make it all good again.

They have to, it’s a second chance that was too important to waste.


End file.
